Bill and Ted next excellent adventure: ‘Waiting for Godot’
Thirty-five years ago, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, playing the high school slackers Bill and Ted, met, among other famous historical figures, Socrates, Billy the Kid, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc and Sigmund Freud. Next year, Winter and Reeves will meet – or at least try to meet – Mr. Godot.
On Thursday, it was announced (without warning) that Winter and Reeves (who came together in 2020 for a long-belated third Bill and Ted movie) will co-star in a new Broadway revival of Samuel Beckett’s classic existentialist drama “Waiting for Godot” as the two tramps who wait dawdle the days away and try to amuse themselves while waiting for the mysterious Mr. Godot to show up.
It will open a year from now, in the fall of 2025. Directing will be Jamie Lloyd, who has become the go-to Englishman for starry revivals with minimalist production values (“Betrayal,” “A Doll’s House,” “Sunset Boulevard”).
Reeves will be making his Broadway debut. During the pandemic, Reeves appeared in a virtual production of Larissa FastHorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play.” On the other hand, Winter, who has worked as a documentary filmmaker in recent years, appeared on Broadway as a child in “Peter Pan” and “The King and I.”
“Waiting for Godot,” which premiered in 1957 with Bert Lahr (“The Wizard of Oz”), has received starry Broadway revivals in 2009 (Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman) and 2013 (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Billy Crudup). Last season, Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks led an Off-Broadway revival in Brooklyn.
Adam Driver to lead Kenneth Lonergan drama in the West Village
Fifteen years ago, before becoming an A-list screen actor, Adam Driver appeared onstage (usually playing an angry young man) in plays such as “Look Back in Anger,” “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” and “Man and Boy.” Before the pandemic shutdown, Driver returned to Broadway in a revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This.”
Now, beginning next month, Driver will headline an Off-Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s 2016 comic drama “Hold On to Me Darling,” which will play the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village (which was recently home to a hit revival of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” with Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott). Driver will portray a country music star who attempts to give up fame and move back to his Tennessee hometown.
Soho Rep to leave longtime downtown home
Soho Rep, a small but well-regarded experimental theater company, will leave its longtime home of more than 30 years at Walker Space in Tribeca beginning next year, citing ongoing structural and maintenance problems. While searching for a new space, it will produce its upcoming seasons at Playwrights Horizons in Midtown.
“Soho Rep is not a building: it is a constellation of values that have long governed its approach to an artist-centered, artist-led investigation of our collective humanity,” Soho Rep Director Cynthia Flowers said in a statement. “The loss of a building can impact an organization adversely, but so can holding on to one for too long.” Soho Rep’s fall production of “Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!” will mark its final show at Walker Space. In 2016, the company was forced to temporarily vacate Walker Space due to issues with the original building plans.
